Biographical Sketches

Brief biographies of men and women whose names crop up in the sources, in this project, and in the book. Please note that the mirzas described in the "mirza sketches" are not included here.

Taranov (1759-1819) was the son of a poor noble from Kharkov. He earned the rank of lieutenant before retiring from military service in 1779. Beginning in 1784 he held a variety of appointed and elected posts in Tavrida, including provincial procurat...

Heinrich Karl Ernst Köhler studied in Wittenburg and Leipzig. He came to St. Petersburg as a private tutor in 1790 and worked as a librarian at the Hermitage. He grew famous throughout Europe for his studies of classical art. A member of the Academ...

One of Alexander I’s closest advisors, Golitsyn accumulated an impressive record, serving as over-procurator of the Holy Synod and Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Education. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences, and a cavalier of every orde...

Married the highly influential Princess Anna Sergeevna Vsevolozhskaia, daughter of Lt. General S. V. Vsevolozhskii.

Owner of the estate of Koreiz. Married Prince Ivan Aleksandrovich Golitsyn.

Golitsyna died in 1837 in Simferopol, and is buried at Koreiz in the Voznesenskii church.

The son of the ambassador to France, Anatolii Nikolaevich Demidov organized and funded a scientific expedition through Southern Russia and Crimea by a group of 22 French scholars interested in geology and metallurgy in 1837. The result was a four-vol...

Major F. D. Revelioti owned one of the most extensive collections of land in the province in the early nineteenth century. Revelioti owned homes in Balaklava and Simferopol, as well as land at Foros, Kikeneiz, Simeiz, Alupka, Oreanda, Mukhalatka and ...

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Vil'brekht

Studied at the Academy of Arts and in the Shliakhta Infantry Corps. Worked in the Geography Department of the Academcy of Sciences 1780-1785 and then in the Geography Department of the Military-Topographical Depo and the Ministry of Education. He tau...

Semen studied at the Azov Province Survey Expedition. One of his first military posts was as a surveyor in Tavrida province (with the rank of ensign). He participated in the storming of Anapa, and in the suppression of the "confederates" in...

A Swiss-born, Italian artist who spent much of his childhood in Odessa. Bossoli trained in Italy, but returned to Russia, spending two years exploring - and painting - Crimea.